


footprints in the sand

by drelfina



Series: The Reckoning: Symbol of Subjugation Inspired [7]
Category: Naruto
Genre: APPLIED RESEARCH VS BASIC RESEARCH, Academia, Clownfish AU, ENGINEERS VS SCIENTISTS, F/M, HOW TO SCIENCE, Other minor characters - Freeform, THE TRUE SCIENTIFIC METHOD, a symbol of subjugation fanfic, based on a symbol of subjugation, beach princess minato, clownfish jutsu, light touch of politics, minor observations of social breakdowns, my sense of humour, ramifications of the history, read if you trust me don't read if you don't, some social science for good measure, technically counts as a clownfish au, this is not millenial minato, what does it mean to achieve tenure, what does it mean when you are pinpointed for greatness and you don't wanna
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:06:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24752875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drelfina/pseuds/drelfina
Summary: Minato isverygood at what he does, and he knows it.The problem is, so do other people.A study of the differences between applied research and basic research - what  does it mean when you achieve tenure?Takes place ~8 years after the end of A Symbol of Subjugation's epilogue.
Relationships: Namikaze Minato/Uzumaki Kushina
Series: The Reckoning: Symbol of Subjugation Inspired [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649584
Comments: 70
Kudos: 186





	1. the great conversation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [evocates](https://archiveofourown.org/users/evocates/gifts).
  * Inspired by [a symbol of subjugation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21368578) by [evocates](https://archiveofourown.org/users/evocates/pseuds/evocates). 



> again, this is a fic based on a symbol of subjugation, more than a handful of years after the epilogue of that fic. it's probably a little off in terms of time-line, but i'm not that good with time-line anyway.
> 
> i decided to post this one a little earlier because the rest of the week is going to be a pain so why not have a little joy for myself? 
> 
> this is for you, evocates.

The thing was, Minato had always been very curious. 

He also had a very good memory - which meant that he didn't have to take notes in the field, and could instead remember every observation he had. 

It was necessary - because people always got a bit funny if they noticed you taking notes of what they were saying, and really, he had a lot of motivation to be a bit more focused on output. 

His own personal notes from before he moved to Uzushio were literally one small scroll of five small notebooks in his shorthand. It had been enough, really - for the most part, improvising on the fly, in the field, was productive enough that his superiors and the Elders were pleased with his output. 

Jutsu application and refinement was lucrative directly and indirectly: there was always the pressure to produce some new innovative jutsu that performed well in the field - if not much better, or more flashily, then at least more efficiently, with lower chakra-costs. 

If one considered innovation in the terms of refining models or repurposing something already refined and used but used in a completely different way, it too could be marketed to other nations. Secondary research and application was the driving force, really, in a lot of jutsu research. 

He'd once gone into the archives on his week-long break once and gotten lost in the particular methodology of jutsu application, and had to agree that the Senju philosophy of "practice make perfect" was really the best way to investigate all nooks and crannies of any particular jutsu. 

It was just... 

Kind of boring. 

(Not that Minato would say anything like that.) 

Still. There was something to be said about cobbling together jutsu in the field, and even if Minato was pretty sure he knew what the outcomes would be, he did find it fascinating to observe the people's reactions _to_ said... ah, adapted jutsu. 

And his observations were: 

a) most shinobi weren't always this good at adapting on the fly, at his speed. 

b) this was catching the attention of certain parties. 

And Minato... wasn't sure he liked that.

* * *

It was subtle. Minato hadn't been quite sure at first - after all as long as his superiors were pleased, that was the most of it. 

But he found himself getting assigned more and more showy missions, and he found himself being asked for by name. He had friends, but ... his clan wasn't a big one. His clan had no real name. 

But when the founding clan members - besides the Uchiha, because EVERYONE knew the Uchiha - started hanging out and calling him over for drinks... 

He wondered if he should be concerned.

* * *

Uchiha Mikoto had been his classmate in the Academy, and they had graduated in the same year but not to the same teams. Still, they were friends, and it had always been interesting to listen to her stories about her Huge Clan and her Cousins. 

(He casually kept a tree of her Clan and amused himself with constructing it without any input from the official records, just her words alone.) 

She had been his only close friend from a major clan for the majority of his genin and chuunin career. He'd even occasionally visited the main Clan Compound on some of their Clan specific festivals, withstood their cheerful ribbing of Mikoto-kun finally bringing home a wife, been handed half a dozen babies every five minutes while thinking of fire release and the specific interactions with chemicals under different local pressures. 

(Did magnetic fields influence these? Unknown, must investigate when he had time.) 

He had been fine with that; it meant his parents would not mind terribly nor pester him too much about bringing home a wife himself. 

And then the Hyuuga Clan heir's brother went on a mission with him. 

It might have been a coincidence. 

It could have been. 

But then it went a little sideways at one point with bandits, weather, and a team of Iwa nin who the Tsuchikage was _definitely_ going to disavow, and Minato had to pull several jutsu out of his ass, adjust them for the Hizashi's Gentle Fist, and drag them both home. 

Two days later, the Clan Heir himself sat down opposite Minato in one of Minato's favourite izakaya. 

"That's ... I'm waiting for Mikoto-kun," Minato said carefully when Hyuuga Hiashi glared at him. 

Or stared at him. It was a little difficult to tell.

"How do you know about the Gentle Fist?" Hiashi said. 

"Uh," Minato said. 

"Have you been watching my brother?" 

"No?" 

"For you to be able to coordinate so well with our Clan Jutsu," Hiashi said, and he hadn't raised his voice at all, but he was ... _staring_ at Minato so hard that Minato was fairly sure the man was staring into his brain. "You had to have been watching." 

"I've... witnessed his chuunin exam?" Minato said, because honestly this was the first time he'd ever been on a mission with a Hyuuga from the main family. 

Though to be honest, if you'd seen the start of the Gentle fist that was exhibited during the chuunin exams it wasn't _that_ big a jump to extrapolate how much further the first master of that school of martial arts would have gone. The logic made _sense_. The _first principles_ were related to the Eight Trigrams, utilizing circular motions and precise, targeted techniques. Having to supplement and support Hizashi, particularly in helping bring opponents within reach for him to subdue AND not getting in his way meant using more of Minato's wind chakra releases than lightning, and honestly it was only logical.

"You've witnessed his chuunin exam," Hiashi said, heavily and _deliberately_. "and developed this." 

"Yes," Minato said slowly. "I didn't try to steal his technique at all. I apologise for... offending you?" 

Hiashi let the silence draw long enough Minato started fiddling with the teapot, though he knew if he poured Hiashi tea he'd actually _stay longer_. 

Who knew what Mikoto would say if she turned up and Hyuuga Hiashi was still here! 

Also it was kind of unsettling to be stared at for so long by a Hyuuga. A Hyuuga _main family member_. 

(Why was it so unsettling though? Was it the colour of the irises? The barely visible pupils? Or the slight press of the Hyuuga chakra, almost icy and ticklish? Certainly he'd never been so unsettled by the Uchiha gaze, but then Uchiha focused on being unsettling in other ways, more physical, exuberant _obvious_ ways, not with their eyes, which they were polite about only using a maximum three-second count. Perhaps he should seek out the Aburame and Inuzuka to see whether there was a difference -) 

"You worked well with him," Hiashi said suddenly, and Minato almost dropped the teapot. "I suppose you are not an unsuitable partner." 

"Oh good," Minato said, hurriedly, "I hope to continue to work well with any of your Clan members as teammates in the future." 

Hiashi's eyebrows furrowed a little, but then he stood. "Your friend is coming. I won't take up more of your time, Namikaze-san." 

"Oh thanks. Uh. Thank you for stopping by? Tell your brother I hope his ankle is recovering?" 

"I will convey your well-wishes," Hiashi said and swept out past Mikoto, who at least had the self-control to keep her expression mildly polite until the man left. 

"What was he here for," she said. 

"To make sure I didn't intend to steal more of his family jutsu? I don't know," Minato said.

* * *

But then it kept... happening. 

No, not Hyuuga Hiashi and Hizashi showing up, though Minato was fairly sure he felt the Hyuuga watch him as he went to the mission room. 

Other Clan members - high ranking clan members! - started asking for him on different teams, which was odd because he ought to have been settled into a permanent team. 

He was asked to report more often to the Jounin Commander. 

And he noticed the Jounin Commander's wife - the Kemuri - was in those meetings three times out of five. 

He was not personally requested for by any large founding clan heir, or even from their main branches but. 

But. 

He was eighteen, a little young to be getting speculative looks, but he wasn't _stupid_. 

The Kemuri couldn't be interested in _him_ for anything but something big. 

Then Hatake Sakumo - Uchiha _Kagami's_ actual _student_ asked for him. 

Personally. 

To take a genin-team. 

A Genin team that included his own _son_. 

That, Minato thought as he watched Sakumo fold his fingers calmly, deliberately, on his desk in his own _study_ , was not something to be considered _lightly_. 

"I've never taken a genin team before," Minato said carefully, watching Sakumo, watching Sakumo watch him, and was highly aware of Orochimaru not-reading a scroll on the other side of the room. 

"Consider it a personal favour," Sakumo said, genially. "I like your work, and I think you could expose Kakashi to a little more thinking outside the lab." 

"Kakashi-kun likes the lab work very much," Orochimaru said, just as measured as Sakumo, and Sakumo smiled like it was an argument they'd already had. 

"I'd like him to get a little more exercise. A bit more sun." Sakumo smiled at Minato, ever so gently, but his dark grey eyes were watching Minato and Minato could see the way he was _measuring_ him. 

"He gets plenty," Orochimaru objected mildly. 

"And with children his own age, it would be good for him to have a little more outside influence." 

Minato swallowed carefully. "I would be honoured?" 

"Thank you," Sakumo said. "You're doing me a favour, Minato-kun."

* * *

He wasn't that much older than the genin team, to be honest. He'd been acquainted with Obito before, and thus was comfortable enough to let the kids have their own head for most of the missions that they could take. 

But he was very aware of what it meant - Hatake Sakumo was a likely candidate for Hokage, especially with his remarkable and powerful wife Orochimaru.

(Whose work in biologicals was outstanding and frankly speaking inspired) 

But Sakumo was definitely watching Minato for _something._

Minato could read the signs as well as anyone else - a young man, praised for his jutsu and accomplishments in the field, suddenly acquainted and going on high visibility missions with prominently ranked shinobi from certain Clans? 

The speculation in Sakumo's eyes weren't quite the same as Hiashi's had been, but the fact that there was _appraisal_ of this sort from someone like Sakumo, meant something. 

After all, you kept friends close. And enemies _closer_. 

This meant that _strings_ were being tugged, ever so gently, strings Minato could feel in the Jounin Commander's Office. 

It meant _smoke_. 

As much as Minato liked the kids, he knew perfectly well how this was placing him in a spotlight, and he wasn't sure he liked who was _watching_.

* * *

He tried talking to Nidaime first. After all, Uchiha Madara was a constant presence in the Uchiha Clan, and he'd picked Sandaime-sama personally. If he could make the Kemuri, who was Madara's wife's _student_ turn his gaze away... well, then that would be the end of it. 

But Madara laughed at him, and didn't stop laughing and instead told him about a silly story of how he'd once thrown Tobirama's students out the window. 

Next he tried Izuna - a little more approachable, he was Mikoto's grandmother after all. 

Izuna had nodded seriously... and then handed him Mikoto's littlest niece and advised Minato to help burp the baby. 

He went to Mito-sama, who just smiled at him, talked about the weather no matter how directly he tried to talk about Sarutobi Danzou, the fact that the other Clans seemed to keep _watching_ him, and then patted him on the head. 

It was with sinking hopes that he went to Hashirama, trying to ask him for help. 

Hashirama fell asleep sitting up, dozing against the wall that just cradled him. 

Mikoto had suggested he try old Aunt Hikaku, but as seriously as the old man listened to him, as intently as he nodded... 

Nothing happened. 

Sakumo kept asking him for weekly reports, while Orochimaru watched him with gold, unsettling eyes.

More Clan heirs - the Houki, Inuzuka, even the famously reclusive Aburame heir requested his presence in a discussion of wind jutsu development, and Minato could _feel_ their speculation sharpen and tighten around him. 

The Founders would do _nothing_. Of course they wouldn't - everyone knew the Sandaime was a quiet, steady hokage, but chosen for the fact that his _Kemuri_ was Danzou - specifically because Tobirama had been his sensei.

* * *

There was starting to be something almost like a political...divide happening, and Minato could see it. 

"You're getting popular, these days," Mikoto noted, almost idly, one evening, and Minato bit his lip. 

He was going on more missions, even though he had the genin team - sometimes these missions were assigned specifically to him alone, and conflicted with missions he had been about to take at the mission room for the genin team; more than once he'd been handed an A-rank scroll instead of the D-rank he'd asked for, accompanied by steely eyes across the mission desk. 

At least several elders had made a point to talk to him - or be in the same room as he was. He kept track of them - and it was increasingly obvious - there were some elders who obliquely praised him, and these were those who were allied with the Inuzuka, Aburame. The Akimichi (and their allies) seemed to be conspicuously absent in seeking him out, and Hyuuga … were… 

"It's almost like Hyuuga's courting you," Mikoto said, looking over the street, and Minato almost choked on the dango he'd put in his mouth. 

"I'm nothing," he said. "Besides, they're fairly insular, why would they-" 

"I heard the clan heir's brother is as yet unmarried, without a fiancee in sight," Mikoto said. And then she was looking at him. "It's one way to get out of this mess, you know." 

The worst thing, Minato thought, refusing to look in the direction of the Hyuuga that Mikoto had noted, was that she was right. 

Because he was starting to see divides - and he was fairly sure that Sakumo was Sandaime's chosen successor - everyone knew how close Torifu-sama and Uchiha Kagami were. But Kemuri-sama seemed to have an eye on someone else. 

"Get married," Mikoto said, patting him on his shoulder, "to someone completely unsuitable." 

"Your advice sucks," Minato said. 

Because there was no one Minato could think of as a wife that was _unsuitable_ enough to deter the Kemuri; if he played up being wife material, who knew if the Kemuri would think him a suitable _successor_ instead? 

(How many assassination attempts were there on other country's Kemuri equivalents a month? How many assassinations were there on the Hokage's _Wife?_ The power that came with these positions was not the kind of gold that Minato could ever crave.)

* * *

He was… desperate enough to go to the last Senju Clan head's grave. 

Not that he thought she'd give him any advice - unless he fell asleep in front of her grave and she came to him in a dream and told him to punch everyone. 

Well. 

It'd be just like her, he supposed, staring down at the polished stone with her name carved out. 

(Senju was such a weird word to see. So few of them left, one of the first clans that had started the Village, now peacefully fading away into history, just the one Senju on the Monument. The last war-time leader ever.) 

(The last time he'd seen the word _Senju_ was in relation to a Research Method - exploring every possible application of any one jutsu. She… sort of was the personification of that philosophy, he supposed. The "anything can be applied with enough punching" method.) 

Maybe some inspiration, he supposed. 

If they'd ever said OUTRIGHT, that they wanted him to be Hokage, or even Kemuri, Minato would have been able to turn them down. 

But he couldn't, because no one had said _anything_ , and he had no backing of an influential clan to make his word stick, even if he were to say something right now. 

Just punch the problem till they go away, he thought, as he bowed to Senju Touka's grave. Well. It was more advice than the others had given him so far.

* * *

While the kids were organising the archives for their D-rank he'd managed to get for them, Minato found a scroll. 

It was one of the scrolls he'd looked up a couple years ago, when he had been investigating possible applications of the hirashin's space folding component. 

It hadn't quite worked, because messing with space at that level was touching ridiculously close to time, and Minato knew the _reasons_ why you didn't mess with time at all. 

(Things went weird that close, physics started to warp precariously, and while Minato thought the effects were fascinating, he didn't actually have all the chakra in the world to stabilize a field large enough for one person, let alone more.) 

But he'd come up with a way to utilize the hiraishin for one, several people at once to share the chakra-load, and two, for himself to jump short distances within sightline, as long as not too many people were around, because _their_ chakra fields tended to interfere. 

What, Minato wondered, would Uchiha Tobirama do? 

Besides, Minato thought wryly, be the Hokage's Wife, teach half a dozen students into the most terrifying bunch of the first graduates from the Academy, _revamp_ the Academy curriculum three times a term and stare down anyone who dared to ask him to be involved in politics. 

And possibly invent half a dozen new jutsu while he was mildly eviscerating you verbally. Looking at the scroll… all he could remember of Tobirama was the absolute _silence_ when Minato was about eight years old, just old enough to understand something momentous had happened - the sheer standstill _quiet_ of the way every adult, even the teachers, had moved, talked, and for a whole two weeks, every Uchiha had not attended class. 

Reading about Tobirama's jutsu always made Minato slightly wistful that he had been too young to get to know Tobirama as the jutsu specialist he had been (rather than a face on the mountain) before the man had died, let alone ask him about the choice of a specific seal. He knew when he used _those_ seals for his own hirashin markers his chakra interacted oddly and made a yellow flash, while Tobirama's hirashin was famous for the almost complete energy efficiency - nothing wasted in light emissions while he simply, cleanly, folded space into pretzels. 

Tobirama, Minato thought, would either tell him to go improve his hiraishin, invent a _better_ jutsu, and also to leave him alone regarding politics. Tobirama was _famous_ for abstaining from obvious political moves, but then, Minato could read between the lines. 

Would Tobirama have been able to help? A mind like his, who could see the natural laws of the world, and just connect a line from here to there without question… 

Minato probably would get a solution, but whether he liked it or not would be a completely different story.

* * *

When Minato had graduated from the Academy, the Sannin had been in the jounin pool for students. 

Sometimes Minato wondered what it would have meant, if the powers that be had assigned him to the Sannin. One of them. Any of them. 

(Instead he'd been under Maito-sensei and for the most part it had been good, because Maito-sensei was very good at knowing when Minato had been stuck in his own head for too long and would drag him out for a cross-country run that if nothing else, jostled loose ideas and got the brain juices flowing. Sometimes he wouldn't be able to do _anything_ about them, what with the jelly legs and wobbly hands, but you know. Still.) 

Perhaps he wouldn't have been quite so terrified of being poisoned by Orochimaru-san. 

Perhaps, he wouldn't be so surprised at having fucking _Jiraiya_ standing there at the edge of training ground 32, watching Minato as he tried to examine the consequences of using doton while under high speed and pressure. 

It wasn't like he had time, otherwise, to conduct these kinds of experiments, anymore, not when the children were constantly needing D-ranks or else little Kakashi started applying extremely inappropriate jutsu to trees, and Obito started getting into Minato's food supplies like he was literally Mikoto's actual child - and he wasn't, he'd _checked_ \- and Rin gave him disappointed looks all the time. That and the influx of his own personally assigned, no refusing allowed, missions from the mission desk - and sometimes said scrolls showing up on his pillow as a mark of increasingly terrifying _personal_ attention, meant he had so little time to indulge …. Well, his own interests. 

So that was why he had been out on training ground 32 in the middle of the night, sacrificing sleep for an idea that had niggled him for the past week, and now one of the Sannin was watching him. 

Just. 

Watching him. 

Pretending to not notice him at least meant that Minato didn't have to try to _talk_ to Jiraiya, and after ten harrowing minutes of being _watched_ while trying not to accidentally blow his fingers up, Jiraiya went away.

* * *

The worst part, Minato thought, was when they got a D-rank to go help out at the hospital. 

Rin had been dubiously hopeful, because even though she was young she already was starting to look for internships in the more medical side of things. 

(Minato had been a _great_ disappointment to her there, because while he knew a great many things about medical jutsu, it was _entirely_ theoretical, and he was far more likely to help you lose a finger than to get it stuck back on.) 

Hospital meant at least Rin would get to interact with the medics - Minato _knew_ that the Hospital was where people did a _Great deal_ of research, and huge advances in human anatomy and chakra-manipulation. If one wanted to get to know the basics of chakra-generation and how it affected physiology, that was where to start. 

He didn't know much about the actual _workings_ of the hospital - it was huge, it had departments of various… things. All he did was read the publications. 

So he really didn't notice when one of the nursing interns led them past the outpatient areas, through winding corridors, into the lab sections. 

Probably lab sections. There were lots of clean metal doors, pale green floors and cool cream walls. He hadn't really been paying attention, just glad that Kakashi was quiet and listening wide-eyed to the intern chatting to Rin. 

"Here, Minato-sensei," the intern said, opening a door and ushering the kids through. "We just have to have you complete some paperwork while your students start the clean up." 

"Alright," Minato said, following the intern after a quick glance through the door. It was just a pile of rather interesting looking books and scrolls - dry work; Rin might be disappointed later that there wasn't anyone to punch or dissect, but theory was still worth looking at. 

And then the intern opened another door to a big office and. 

Uzumaki Tsunade looked up at him. 

"Ah, yes, thank you, Shizune-chan," a mild-mannered male voice said from behind Minato while he stared at _another_ of the Sannin. "We'll take it from here." 

Minato abruptly noticed that this office lacked windows. 

"You can take a seat, Minato-san," the mild-mannered man said, walking around Minato, and there was literally only one chair in front of Tsunade's desk. The desk where doctors were hauled in front of the _Hospital Director_ to be raked over coals. 

The supplicant's chair. 

Minato swallowed, and sat. 

The man went around to the side of Tsunade's desk, and smiled at Minato. 

Minato'd only ever seen _photos_ of Uzumaki Dan, Head of Research, when he went asking Intel for permission to access medical journals and records. 

Tsunade curled her hands into a loose platform for her to lean her chin on, and Minato knew that besides her medical prowess (she could practically bring people back from the _dead_ ), she was also famous for breaking down _mountains_. 

Barehanded. 

Minato could feel his bones _cringe_. 

"So you're Kakashi's sensei," Tsunade said, suddenly, and Minato almost fell off the chair. 

"Yes," Minato said after he was sure his voice wasn't going to crack from sheer terror. 

"Fascinating. I didn't think you were any good at biological research." 

"It's not my specialty, no," Minato said. 

"But you do have some fascinating thoughts on space-time," Dan said, reaching down to tap a single folder on Tsunade's desk. 

It had his name on the front. 

It was also very, very thin. 

Minato was fairly sure that there probably wasn't _anything_ inside but his own fears and insecurities, so _that_ was going to be… fun. 

"A few," Minato said. 

"You did do something interesting with the hiraishin," Tsunade said. "Not just the whole… 'Yellow Flash' bit." 

"It's a little showy," Dan said. 

"That's a side-effect. Unintended," Minato said. 

"Mm. But that incident when at the … mm which Pass was it again?" Tsunade tilted her head slightly. 

"It's slipped my mind," Dan said. "But that particular application of the hiraishin." 

It was, Minato thought, a month ago when he had encountered a civilian caravan, and bandits. They hadn't been… bandits per se - because it had taken him five seconds to realise they were far too coordinated, their mis-matched armour and clothing too _new_ to not be actually soldiers in disguise. 

He'd been weak from chakra-drain, however, and hadn't had time or energy to deal with it but the most _efficient_ way. 

Which was to locate the leader of the 'bandits' and fold his heart into the space of his left lung. 

He'd collapsed after, but that had taken care of the bandit issue, and a secondary Konoha team came to deal with the body. 

He'd had not written anything but a bare-boned report; he shouldn't have been surprised to realise that the body would have ended up in the hospital, and probably Uzumaki Dan would have heard of it - the hiraishin modification should have been properly reported, but when no one had made a follow-up with him, Minato had not thought further on it. 

"You aren't going to publish it?" Tsunade asked, ever so calmly, and Minato thought she sounded remarkably lupine. 

(The Sannin, he remembered, realised, were good friends of _Hatake Sakumo_.) 

"It was accidental," Minato said, hurriedly. "I doubt I'd be able to repeat it under anything but very controlled circumstances - it's hardly worth the ink and paper to write up a report, let alone an article." 

"Is that so," Tsunade said.

"Very much so," Minato said. "I'm not that efficient a user of the hirashin, and modifications are stupidly hard to achieve without a huge chakra drain. Really not worth publishing, or trying to -" his words trailed off when he realised what he was saying. 

By downplaying this, it was almost the same as saying that not only could he develop jutsu on the fly, without extended peer-reviewed testing, he also _wasn't_ publishing them, and thus not making _everything_ he was developing available for the Village. 

"Which was what you were testing the other night?" Tsunade asked. 

And couple _that_ with what Jiraiya observed the other night - where Minato had been trying to do something with jutsu, in an isolated training field, alone, in the middle of the night _with no other witnesses_... 

It sounded a lot like him trying to accumulate his own personal, _secret_ arsenal. 

Dan smiled vaguely at him. 

"It's interesting, even if you don't think it is," Dan said. "Please do come by again, I wouldn't mind discussing such an application with you." 

Minato nodded, and took his leave as hastily as was polite at _that_ opening. 

Oh no, oh no oh _no._

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it is entirely likely that the references to academia is only funny to me lol 
> 
> ah well
> 
> [The great conversation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Conversation) is "is the ongoing process of writers and thinkers referencing, building on, and refining the work of their predecessors."
> 
> * * *
> 
> with the ending of _a symbol of subjugation_ , any subsequent fics actually kind of fall under the Clownfish AU by the actual definition of the clownfish AU rules lol. that's why this falls under two serieses.


	2. to stand on the shoulders of giants

Who knew how much worse it could have become, if the Uzushio delegation hadn't made their semi-annual visit.

Minato honestly thought he wouldn't have lived past the end of the year. 

He wasn't stupid, he knew that there were slowly coalescing factions, one behind Sakumo and one… essentially the Kemuri's, and Mikoto really had no advice for him - she wasn't _officially_ main branch the way Rishiri and and his siblings were, just unofficial, so all she could do was really pat him consolingly and encourage him to - well… 

Play dumb, stick his head in the sand and hope it'd all go away .

(It wasn't going to go away.) 

But the Uzushio delegation was coming - and it was _always_ a bit of a production; one of Konoha's first and foremost allies, and Minato wasn't all that boned up on the exact political details and specifics but really, nothing could go _wrong_ with their visit. 

If nothing else, it gave Minato a bit of breathing room to think, since all eyes were on the Uzumaki. 

There was nothing _but_ low-visibility, D-ranks all over the mission room with the Uzushio delegation coming, and it was with great relief that Minato could just sit by the riverside and watch Kakashi try to cheat his way into mending fishing nets using jutsu rather than the proper way of literally untangling them. 

"You can't really just lightning them into place, Kakashi-kun," Minato said, amused at Kakashi's increasing frustration; the more he pouted, the more lightning he tended to use, and all that did was create static charge and then - 

Woops. 

Obito was laughing while Minato, battling his own amusement, went and untangled a wriggly petulant Kakashi who was extremely annoyed that the net had leapt up and attacked him and was now clinging to the fluffy mess of his hair. 

"You got a big catch this time." 

Minato looked up towards the bridge. "I didn't fish this one from the Naka," he said, "His father would hardly approve of that method of restraint -" 

He stared: the speaker's eyes were a deep grey-blue, and she was smiling down at him. 

"Really," she said, and the gold and silver hairpiece pinned to her hair flashed in the sun as she tipped her head to consider him. The black pearl in her earlobe glinted, the blue-grey overtone matching her eyes precisely. "What's your name, he who doesn't fish children from the river?" 

"Uh, Namikaze Minato," Minato said, and was suddenly aware of - well, her everything, from the dark embroidered boots she was wearing, the dense, thick cape on her shoulders, and her bright, controlled chakra. 

"Namikaze Minato," she repeated, like the name was familiar and she was now fixing a face to the words, and her smile widened.

She was from the Uzushio delegation. And she'd asked his name? 

Was even the Uzushio _checking_ on him? 

"Sen _sei_!" Kakashi demanded, holding out his hands to Minato, and Minato was hurriedly reminded of his duties - namely, untangling his student from the huge weight of the net before Obito fell into the water from laughing. 

"Alright alright, here, I've got you -" He had to pick up Kakashi to get the net untangled from his legs (how on earth had that happened?) and then ducked when Kakashi tried to throw the net _over_ Minato's head at Obito. 

There was a glint of red in the corner of his eyes - when he glanced back to the bridge, someone was talking to the Uzushio delegate, trying to point her in another direction towards the centre of the Village, but she was still looking at him.

* * *

"I think you look good with children," she said. 

And really, there was no reason for her to be there, talking to him, startling him out of his reverie in the izakaya. 

(With the delegation here, he finally had time to just sit and _think_ and while he hadn't had any thoughts on what to do to get away from being, well, the Kemuri's Hokage candidate - ~~because that was what this all was going to lead to, and it wasn't going to be a _good_ thing, this was going to be succession _crisis_ , which meant that when Sakumo's faction finally took action, after all this dancing around, Minato was going to be a Very Dead Person. Or if not dead, definitely wishing to be - ~~ at least he could sit and think about potential ideas he had on the kage bunshin, what he could be doing if he didn't have to think about missions, students, and _a succession crisis_.) 

"I beg your pardon," he said, and tried to make himself look around to see if the rest of the Uzushio delegation had also turned up. 

… 

Also the izakaya had gone remarkably silent. 

Probably because it was now _empty_. 

"You'd look better," she said, "with _my_ children." 

Minato stared at her. 

Her smile was very sharp. 

"That was a pick-up line," she said after a moment. 

"Oh," Minato said, feeling his brain stall for a moment. "Thank you? So you weren't checking on me for the whole Hokage thing?" 

Now it was _her_ turn to look like he'd gone off on a completely different tangent. "No? Why? Oh well I mean it's necessary to know about Konoha's doings," she said with a shrug that was almost elegant if it wasn't basically restrained _power_ and now that Minato knew she was doing this as some sort of _pick up line_ he could let himself linger in the feel of her chakra. 

And hers was very deep. Rich and bright and _deep_. 

"But that's not why I wanted to know your name. Namikaze _Minato_." 

His name - she was letting his name linger on her tongue like she wanted to eat him _up_ and he was. 

Suddenly. 

Breathless. 

"Then maybe I should get to know yours too," Minato said, because she had clearly cleared out the izakaya just so she could talk to him like _this_ and - and - 

His heart was in his throat, and he was guessing he knew who she was. 

"Uzumaki Kushina," she said, "Prince of Uzushio." And then she was looming across the table, which suddenly felt very, _very_ narrow, and her fingers were tipping his chin up. "But you may call me husband."

* * *

It wasn't very… hard to know that the _entire_ delegation was now in an uproar. 

There were at least two people wailing _Heika!!!_ outside. 

Minato couldn't find it in himself to care very much - it seemed like a problem for the future, right now, because… 

Well .

First, it solved _all_ his problems, but the real, true, thing was? 

He couldn't stop looking away from Kushina. 

She kept stealing his breath, so he had to try and get it back.

* * *

"Marry first, get to know him later. It worked for Mito-sama and Hashirama-sama," Kushina said, and Minato should be trying to sit up, he really should, but she was. 

Very warm, and her arm around his waist felt very comfortable. 

"The circumstances were a little different," Mito said mildly while the rest of the delegates looked fit to break out into wails of _but Heika!!_ all over again. 

"True," Kushina said, "I already know he's good with children." 

"Not my point," Mito said, "But it is your prerogative to do as you like, Kushina-chan." 

Kushina beamed. "Thank you for your blessing, Mito-sama." 

"And you're fine with this, Minato-chan?" Mito's eyes were sharp on Minato, but somehow, it didn't make him feel as helpless as he had, the last time he'd seen Mito. 

"It's a little fast, and I think," Minato said, but Kushina was all but nuzzling his hair and it was Very Hard to think. "I should protest but …" 

Mito snorted. 

"There's something magnetic about Kushina?" Minato finished lamely, knowing _precisely_ that he looked like an adoring blushing bride straight out of the street opera, and he could definitely feel the Uzushio delegates stare at him in dismay. 

His cheeks pinked a little, but went hotter when Kushina made a pleased noise. 

"That's called being swept off your feet," Mito said drily. "Congratulations." 

"Like… Hashirama-sama did with you?" 

Mito snorted _extremely_ undelicately. "I mean like how _Madara_ did to Tobirama." 

Minato twitched a little. 

Like Tobirama? There was _no_ way he'd ever think of himself and Tobirama in the same sentence like this, let alone _liken_ himself to _Tobirama_. 

"Don't tell Orochimaru-san that, ever. Please." 

Mito didn't even bother taking her fan out to cover her laugh.

* * *

Uzushio was nothing like Konoha. At all. 

Even discounting the basic geography and microclimate, everywhere their accent was a little more Water than Fire, and - well they revered Kushina. And they most definitely thought Minato wasn't… what, good enough? 

That was an interesting problem to have. 

Finally, not being _good_ enough. He'd heard snippets of arguments while he wandered the Palace like a wide-eyed ingenue at how the Prince's Wife should be more awe-inspiring. More… _productive_. 

On the one hand, the Prince having tamed a wild rising-star of a Konoha jounin to her hand was somewhat reminiscent of how Tobirama-sama had once talked a water-kami out of drowning Uzushio, but on the other, there was also nothing particularly _noteworthy_ or beneficial that Minato brought with this marriage. 

It was… actually, kind of hilarious, to see their reactions the more he cooed over the silks and jewellery Kushina draped over him. 

So why not… push it further? 

He didn't have to go on missions as Kushina's Wife, after all. He was no longer a Hokage's candidate, and Sakumo's Wife couldn't murder him from here. 

So he stood on the beach, and, trailing a long white silk robe, the hem painted _crimson fire_ , took his sandals off. 

The hastily covered up scandalised gasps behind him was _entertaining_ as hell as he wandered down the beach to the waves, feeling water soak his feet and hem.

* * *

"Denka. _Denka_ , please -" 

Minato casually swiped some water from the waves and cleaned the sand off the shell, before fixing it to his hair with a tiny dot of chakra that melted a grain of sand as a join to metal and shell. 

"Mm?" Minato looked up at one of his several attendants. Being Princess Consort meant he had his own set of attendants (which they had looked askance at him for _not_ bringing his own retinue over) and Minato found that wandering around barefoot on the beach seemed to drive them a little nuts. 

"Denka, please, you have to get ready soon, that state dinner -" 

"Ah," Minato said, and turned around. The attendant looked somewhat relieved that he was going to actually follow them - right until Minato dumped a pile of barnacle covered drift-wood and a starfish into their hands. "Take that to my labs, please?" 

"Yes, Denka," the poor attendant said mournfully. Minato beamed brightly at her, and then started up to the palace without even bothering with sandals. 

He _knew_ they had storage scrolls by the dozen, but really, what was the point of using storage scrolls if there were going to be so many hands standing around staring mournfully and scandalized at him? Besides, he always could visualise his growing collection better when he had the actual objects laid out in front of him - and there was a fascinating growth on the shells of these barnacles that he absolutely had to examine. 

(Also it has been more than a few months - he was wondering how long it'd take for their scandalized expressions to morph into resignation. A year? A year seemed a little long. But then they were very Traditional in the sense that they _clearly_ expected a Wife to be like - Tobirama-sama, or even Biwako-sama, extremely productive, making some sort of wave in a chosen field of expertise. Minato puttering around in his lab collecting seashells was probably some sort of scandal.) 

There was that dinner though, and he was going to have to ask Kushina just how she wanted it done - not that Minato was involved per se with the arrangements and the menu, no. The Finance Minister had something to say, but did Kushina want him distracted? Or _how_ distracted? He'd have to pick out the right kind of jewellery - and - oh, would seals help? He had noticed that even the metal sort here channeled chakra in a very specific way the same way that ferromagnetic metals channelled electricity and magnetic fields, and he was going to try to figure out if using _normal_ gold and silver hair pins would emulate this effect if arranged in just the right way. 

Oh he needed more hair, to wear them! He was going to have to let his hair grow out longer - the experiment to push the growth of hair-roots had just had no effect (which was a good outcome considering the other option was going bald) but waiting was such a pain! 

Maybe if he used cloth as a scaffold… would such a scaffold affect it? The material might be a dampener. Maybe if he used stiffened waxed paper, it could be an insulator - or would wool be a better option since it was most like hair? 

Minato drifted up to the palace and hurried to the store rooms, ignoring the way he was tracking sand into the hallways because he had to go and get hold of some wool samples to see. Silk was the exact opposite, so maybe if he had a composite… 

"Denka? Denka! You have to get ready for the state dinner - _Denka_!"

* * *

"You're going to have a visitor soon," Kushina said, carding her hand through Minato's hair.

"Mm, who?" Minato nuzzled her shoulder and then tucked his face against her neck. 

"Your students. The Big Fish," she said, smiling when Minato looked up at her, blinking at her with one bright blue confused eye. 

"The big fish? Kakashi-kun, you mean," Minato said. 

"Yes, that one," Kushina said. 

"It'd be his first visit to Uzushio," Minato said, starting to sit up. "I wonder that he didn't write to tell me?" 

"Oh, because his mother wrote first," Kushina said. 

"His mother," Minato said. Urgh, Orochimaru-sama still kind of scared him but hey, he was over there in Konoha and not - "Allowed him on an international field trip, unsupervised?" 

"Of course not," Kushina said, smile widening. "Orochimaru-san will be coming too." 

Minato choked. 

"Kushina! You should have told me that the _Hokage's Wife_ was coming!" 

Kushina laughed and dragged him in close to kiss his protests away. "It'll be fine, you'll do wonderfully, I'm sure. Just don't drown the Hokage's son and it'll all be good." 

"I'm not worried about the Hokage's _son!_ " 

"Don't drown the Hokage's Wife either," Kushina said mischievously. "I can cover up anything else." 

Minato huffed but Kushina was grinning too much to continue being mad or worried.

* * *

Orochimaru was as terrifying as ever when he stepped off the boat, only just touching the supporting hand of his son's before Minato was basically almost bowled over by Uchiha Obito bounding up to him. 

"Sensei, Sensei, wow, you look _different_ ," Obito said, grinning, and Minato had to ruffle his hair. 

"Yes, yes of course I do -" Minato smiled down at Obito and it was relatively easy to keep holding the smile as Orochimaru all but glided up the beach. "Orochimaru-sama. I hope your journey was smooth." 

"It was," Orochimaru said, sharp golden eyes glancing up to the gold and coral in Minato's hair and then down back. "Thank you, Uzu-no-jo-ou-sama." 

"Then perhaps I shall convey you to your rooms now?" He tried not to show the twitch at Orochimaru's use of his full title, and he _knew_ Orochimaru saw it. 

Did Orochimaru know that Minato knew that he saw it? 

Was it going completely recursive and going to drive him crazy? Of course it was. 

But Orochimaru didn't say anything else, just dipped his head slightly and followed him in stately silence.

* * *

Orochimaru had what felt like an entire entourage of children though when Minato stopped to count, it was really only four of his own children (three teenagers and one Kakashi) besides the rest of Minato's sole genin team. 

Technically Minato hadn't graduated them yet and had instead eloped off to Uzushio - though the almost year of what was probably a vacation for them must have been good. Rin and Obito had kept up a relatively regular correspondence, and apparently went to drag Kakashi out and about - without Minato there in person, they had decided to take on Kakashi's socialisation and that meant Kakashi had been mobbed completely by the Uchiha in Kakashi's age-group.

Poor Kakashi had started wearing a mask, Rin had written gleefully, to hide from them, but alas, Uchiha were tenacious and had excellent eyesight. 

Minato knew by personal experience how stubborn Uchiha could be - Mikoto had also written to say she'd finally cornered that poor jounin she'd had her eye on into a personal meeting, and now Minato was sure that within the coming weeks Uchiha Fugaku was going to be getting a marriage proposal. 

(Mikoto was practically a Main Family member, she had all the self-assurance that went with it. Poor Uchiha Fugaku wouldn't know what hit him.) 

It was easy enough to take the kids out - his team and even the three teenagers who all warily told him that they were from Ame - to the various beaches of the island; certainly they all were intrigued by the various tide pools dotting the slightly more sheltered side of the island, and the marine life found within. 

Kakashi and Obito's water walking had improved enough that he could even take them out a ways to show them the fairly old wreck that had ended up washed into a somewhat hidden cove. 

The kids were easy to get along with.

It was … dealing with Orochimaru that was harder.

* * *

Orochimaru was… scary for one, of course. But the attendants were used to scary fuckers in positions of power, so that wasn't the problem. 

Minato had been afraid of Orochimaru… making _comments_ , maybe, of how he behaved with Kushina in public, so it was a relief that Orochimaru said nothing. 

No. 

What was scary was that Orochimaru _picked at his food_. For a while there Minato thought he might be worried that Orochimaru was subtly insulting them somehow, in which case was he supposed to take umbrage? Find some other options Orochimaru would be less insulted by? 

Which meant… trying to find out said options in person. 

Which _meant_... taking private meals with Orochimaru. 

Oh no.

* * *

"Is there something here that disagrees with you?" Minato asked after Orochimaru sent away several dishes after barely sampling them - and by barely, that meant Orochimaru's chopsticks only touched the food, before he'd look away, expression barely changing. 

"No, none at all, Uzu-no-jo-ou-sama," Orochimaru said. 

If the Hokage's Wife _starved to death_ in Uzushio, Minato thought, there would be _trouble_. 

"Perhaps you would like something specific?" 

What on earth did Orochimaru like eating? Should he ask Kakashi? Kakashi had run off to go play with his… uh, obviously adopted siblings and possibly lightning up some fish, so Minato was going to have to ask him later. 

"Mm," Orochimaru said, and reached for the plate of cut fruits, looking over it. 

(was that a slight crease in his eyebrows?)

And then picked out, instead, the lemon slices meant for fish. 

Okay then, Minato thought.

* * *

Sour, Minato thought, though Orochimaru ate some of the mikan; hideously expensive things here in the middle of an island where anything that wasn't literal oceanic products had to be imported. 

And some random assortment of foods that took a while for Minato to find a common link until he realised that Orochimaru wanted _crunchy_ textures. 

(This included the brittle, deep fried skin & scales of some fish as well, and Minato tried not to think too hard about the almost reptilian look of pleasure on Orochimaru's face when he crunched on them.) 

None of these were particularly hard to find in _Konoha_ , so of course this strange habit wouldn't have stood out. 

Then Orochimaru threw up on Minato one morning.

* * *

"I apologise, Uzu-no-jo-ou-sama," Orochimaru said, all cool politeness after Minato had cleaned it up with a somewhat shaky suiton and then aired out the room with a much steadier fuuton that had tugged in the fresh oceanic air from outside to cover the slightly sour smell. 

"Are you alright Orochimaru-sama? Should I - perhaps a medic?" 

Orochimaru _couldn't_ have been poisoned, not when he literally was a master of poisons. There were rumours that he literally _ate_ poisons with his morning tea, and if Minato wasn't actually Kakashi's sensei, he might almost lend credence to the story that Orochimaru stuffed Kakashi so full of poisons that he was a walking weapon on his own. 

(Not that Kakashi wasn't dangerous, kid was almost lethally fast, almost on par with the Uchiha speed, and didn't need the chemical aid that rumour liked to give him.) 

"It's unnecessary," Orochimaru said, but slanted him a look, almost narrow-eyed and Minato chewed on his tongue, wondering if Orochimaru was going to just casually murder him for poor hospitality. "But thank you for the offer, Uzu-no-jo-ou-sama." 

He did wish Orochimaru would call him Minato, but maybe the fact that Orochimaru was so _conscious_ of Minato's status as Princess Consort meant that Orochimaru wasn't going to murder him too obviously. 

Just, you know, a time-delayed method. That might actually work, if you could figure out a capsule delivery method that would not immediately decay. But in biological systems this was a messy process, so if Minato was designing something like that, he'd have to consider the polymer that would dissolve a little more precisely in the body's internal environment. Or would it be better to consider really tiny particles? Tiny metallic particles? No, metal got strange at certain sizes, it'd be better to stick to organic polymers, like perhaps polysaccharides? What was that gel he'd noticed the other day… 

"You're thinking of something, Uzu-no-jo-ou-sama?" Orochimaru said, and Minato realised he was standing. 

"Tokoroten!" Minato exclaimed. "I'll have to see to the kitchens, Orochimaru-sama!" 

A refined version of that gel - it'd make for a good delivery system…! 

"I… alright," Orochimaru said, slightly bemused as Minato dashed out.

* * *

"This is," Orochimaru said staring down at the bowl of floating brightly coloured tiny spheres.

"It's kanten," Minato said. "But I've figured out a way to make it pearl shaped," Minato added excitedly, "and since you only seem to like sour things, i've put in grapefruit and lemon juice, which we get in frozen concentrates far more often than the whole fruit. Especially since your return might be delayed with the onset with the typhoon season -" 

"Grapefruit, mm?" Orochimaru poked the bowl with his spoon. 

"Yes, I thought that you liked the lemon then maybe other citrus fruits - "He stopped. 

Orochimaru liked sour things. Like _grapefruit_. 

And he was sick in the mornings. 

Oh. 

Oh _fuck_. 

"Ingenious," Orochimaru said drily. "A fruit juice delivery system." 

"And rehydration pills even," Minato said faintly. "Excuse me. I have to -" 

Go outside and panic for a bit. 

The Hokage's Wife was pregnant, and the upcoming typhoon season meant that short of a miracle, Orochimaru was going to be pregnant _here_ , on Uzushio. 

Minato was going to have to learn how to be a midwife _quickly_.

* * *

"My own, the typhoon season is only two months long," Kushina said, amused as Minato paced in their room. 

"Yes, yes I know-" he said, wringing his hands. 

She'd laughed for almost five minutes straight when he'd burst out with _What if he gave birth here?!_

"But this is a critical period isn't it? The first - few months! The first trimester! What if the jutsu doesn't hold, what if the blastocyst doesn't _take_? He could lose the - the - and then it'd be a political disaster!" 

Kushina reached out to pull him into her arms, settling him firmly into her lap. 

"First of all, it isn't quite that much of a critical period," she said, putting her fingers in his hair and keeping his head still. "Most people only find out if it's taken well into the first trimester and it's not like we need to borrow trouble at this stage." 

"But -" 

"Secondly, it won't be a political disaster on _our_ side, since he didn't announce it, and yet he came here knowing it was a possibility," she said, firmly. "Isn't the jutsu one you have to choose to take on?" 

After a moment, he nodded. 

"Then we don't have to worry," Kushina said and kissed his forehead. 

"Yes, yes you're right," Minato said leaning into her. "He must have known about it."

* * *

"No, I had not known," Orochimaru said while Minato tried not to spit his tea out onto the table. 

"How could you not have -" 

"My biology is unique," Orochimaru said, taking a calm sip of his tea. "I basically live in a permanent state of the jutsu." 

He smiled at Minato, almost sharply as Minato worked out what that meant. 

It meant if Orochimaru had been married this entire time, and only NOW got pregnant with the - the odd state of his jutsu… 

It meant it WAS a precarious pregnancy. 

"Oh," he said faintly. 

"Oh," Orochimaru agreed, and ate a spoonful of the juice spheres. "These are good. Are you going to sell them to Konoha?" 

"We can start negotiations tomorrow," Minato said, mind already racing on the thoughts of _oh no oh no Orochimaru might miscarry here and then Konoha would be upset anyway_.

* * *

"What would these be good for, Sensei?" Kakashi said, picking up a thin glass plate, and shaking it. The yellowish gel inside jiggled only by the barest of margins, and didn't fall out at all even with Kakashi turning it upside down. 

"Growth media," Minato said. "I believe that Orochimaru-sama likes to work with cells, correct?"

"Sometimes, yeah," Kakashi said, squinting at them. 

"A semi-permeable substrate would be useful, I'm sure," Minato said, "but gelatin does not stay solid at warmer temperatures, and besides -" Minato poked at another plate. "Not everything _can_ digest kanten polysaccharides, so it acts as a sort of filter, and stays stable too." 

"Huh," Kakashi said, blinking at it.

"Do you think your mother would like it?" 

Kakashi looked up at him. "Kaa-san really scares you, huh, sensei?" 

"So much," Minato said. "So very much." 

Kakashi put down the plate, and then reached over to pat Minato's arm. "Don't worry," Kakashi said. "I'll make sure Kaa-san kills you quickly if it comes to it." 

"Thank you, Kakashi-kun," Minato said drily. "I appreciate it."

* * *

Despite Minato's _obvious_ fear of him (and for him), Orochimaru was amused to note that Minato did not actually make that many concessions in the negotiating of the manufacture-process for the juice balls, though he did allow the sale of the gel-plate manufacture at a much discounted rate. 

A gift, he'd said, and Orochimaru figured that it was… interesting. 

The young man was terrified of Orochimaru, but on a purely personal scale - politically, he was very much supportive of Uzushio's interests, despite the fluttery appearance he put on. And while he was nothing like Tobirama-shishou had been in terms of jutsu design and invention, Minato's sporadic production was fascinating, no matter his attendants' clear despair of his very unWife-like behaviour. His bursts of genius were inspired and unpredictable, and Orochimaru … liked unpredictable. 

It seemed like, Orochimaru thought, Uzushio's Princess Consort would be someone interesting to work with, especially with the next steps of Sakumo's plans. 

He was going to report as much to Sakumo; after Sakumo recovered from the likely shocking news of Orochimaru's pregnancy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Minato briefly considered metal nanoparticles. Nanoparticle research is a fascinating field, especially in biomedical applications, and has been considered as a medicine/drug delivery system for many applications. Nano particles act very differently from Normal Metals, though, so it's all a bit up in the air. 
> 
> Kanten, or agar-agar, is a gel that is derived from algae, specifically from Japan. It's very popular all over Asia, less finicky to use than gelatin, stays solid at higher temperatures longer than gelatin, and is Halal (probably kosher too). It has many uses, from desserts (look up Tokoroten) or Japanese kanten jellies, but also in bubble teas with the bubblepops (which are basically a 'sack' of agar gel containing the juice). Agar also has huge applications in the biomedical research industries - not least of all being a growth medium for microbial stuff.
> 
> It qualifies as a hydrogel (again, look this up), and basically from there, with the right kind of super-drying technique, you can end up with an _aerogel_ , where the liquid parts have been replaced with air. I've done research on carbon aerogels and _theoretically_ , it's possible to make a carbon aerogel (made of graphite essentially) and fill it with electricity generating microbes and thus you will get a living battery. 
> 
> (it was part of my research for the first two years of my PhD, nbd) 
> 
> A casual comment to say that it would likely be Minato's next step - he finally got tenure! No more precarious pressures, and no more weird political bullshit watching him! He can finally indulge in all the basic research he could ever want and poke to his heart's content while his husband indulges him with a lab space and an entire country's budget. 
> 
> Though sometimes he'd come up with things like mood rings instead lol
> 
> * * *
> 
> [to stand on the shoulders of giants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants) is "Using the understanding gained by major thinkers who have gone before in order to make intellectual progress", most familiar English expression by Sir Isaac Newton.
> 
> * * *
> 
> I'll post the Epilogue in a couple days, so keep tuned! :P


	3. EPILOGUE: Laboratory Life

"When are you going to lay the egg?" 

Minato tucked his thumb into his obi, and looked over to the voice over the side of the boat.

Kushina was in a meeting right now, one he hadn't found necessary to attend, and so Minato was out lying on the boat he had designed, floating a little away from the beach, close enough to the whirlpools that his attendants had made noises. 

But Isobu still found the whirlpools endlessly fun, and besides, he had a new fascination. 

"We don't lay eggs," Minato said, smiling down at Isobu's huge huge left eye, in his grapefruit sized head. His body was the size of a temari ball, and completely disproportionately small. Unlike his other siblings in Konoha, Isobu didn't seem able to figure out how to shrink himself proportionally, which enraged Kurama _endlessly_. He tended to kick up the sand when he yelled at Isobu to look more dignified, and when it never worked because Matatabi just laughed at them both, Kurama would storm off, and Minato would follow after picking up the trail of paw-sized beach glass Kurama left behind.

"Why not?" Isobu asked. "Is it the lack of a nest? I can make a nest! I can make a really _good_ nest, dig it deep and safe!" 

"Have you been talking to sea turtles?" Minato asked, reaching over with his other hand to pet Isobu's head, fingers gently rubbing around the firm spikes. 

"Yes!" Isobu said, bumping his head up into Minato's palm. "They said nests need to be deep and safe and high up the beach! In the sand." 

Minato smiled, and wondered if he should tell Isobu that the castle was the highest point up from the beach, technically up in the sand. 

Though most of it wasn't built _under_ the sand, of course - his Husband had no intention of letting Minato lose himself in an underground lab. Instead all of his labs were ground level, and now winding ramps allowed him to meander his way up to access all levels of the castle. 

Perhaps he would figure out a way to build self-lifting platforms, but these days he was a little too tired to do more than lie in the sun. His mind was quiescent most of the time now, willing to relax and watch the seaweed in the tides, and Kushina thought it was utterly adorable. 

His Husband was the world's most indulgent Prince, Minato thought, and he couldn't help but feel warmth in his chest at the thought.

Something kicked him in the kidney and he gasped. 

"What is it! What is it! Are you going to lay now?!" 

Minato laughed, a little breathlessly, and shifted so he could reach over, and lift Isobu out of the water and nestled him on his belly. "No, the baby just kicked. Can you feel it?" 

Isobu squinted in intense concentration. 

"It feels like Kushina! Kushina is inside?!" 

Minato kept patting Isobu's head, running his fingers down over the bumpy shell, drumming lightly. "No," he said, amused. "It's _Kushina's_ child." 

"Then why does it feel like Kushina?" 

Sometimes, Minato wondered why Isobu still had no idea how their human reproduction worked - but then maybe it was because he only ever bonded to a husband, and his prior jinchuuriki tended to gently evict Isobu out to the whirlpools every time he decided to get busy with his wife.

Had Kushina's mother had to field such questions? Had _Taji-san_? Minato tried to imagine the dignified Elder Taji-san explaining that his wife wasn't going to lay eggs, and giggled. 

"Heee! It kicked!" Isobu said, wobbling over Minato's belly and almost rolling off. 

Minato laughed and caught him, and then put him back further up his belly so he wouldn't roll away. 

"See?" Minato said. "That's why I'm not going to lay eggs. The baby can't kick so well if it's going to be in a shell, can it?" 

Isobu blinked his eye. "But then how will it be protected?" 

"Kushina will protect it," Minato said. "And so will you, right? Will you keep Kushina's child safe?" 

"Of course!" Isobu exclaimed. "And I will take him to the whirlpools where it is _safest_ from typhoons and I will _eat all the sharks_!" 

Sharks were like shishamo snacks to Isobu, Minato thought, and smiled, patting Isobu's shell, drumming lightly again and lulling him until he sort of sank down, withdrawing into his shell like a particularly bumpy egg. 

"Denka! Denka-!" 

Minato exhaled, and opened his eyes. 

Oh. He'd drifted off again. 

He glanced down to the side, looking through the clear glassy-bottom of the boat to check the marked out squares of seafloor. 

From his control transect line he had checked earlier, nothing much was happening, but here, along his sample transect, he thought he could make out two of his little marked crabs hiding amongst the seagrass. Well then. Once he completed a statistical survey of the crab population, he could implement his minor treatment of introducing a competitor species. He didn't actually want to ruin the native ecology here, after all. 

"Coming, I'm up," Minato said, and picked up Isobu from his belly and planted him in his hair. 

Isobu made a little noise, reached out and clamped his mouth over one of the metal edges of his hairpieces, little feet digging into the mass of Minato's hair while Minato idly touched a seal on the side of his boat. 

The boat turned around and started towards the shore. 

"Denka, please, you really shouldn't be out in the sun for so long, not in your condition!" 

"It wasn't that long, and Isobu was with me," Minato said, stepping off the boat onto the water surface. His attendant made a face, which meant he was going to be told-on to Kushina, who had _said_ he wasn't supposed to be water walking. 

Still, it was _shallow_ , and the chakra expenditure was negligible, barely more than what he'd expended to power the boat's seals. 

"But Denka -" 

"Isn't it dinner time, Isobu? Yes, I wonder what dinner will be. Maybe it will be seabass." 

Kushina had asked him for names, Minato thought, and glanced back towards his transects, almost all the way to the whirlpools swirling deceptively gently in the strait that divided them from the Land of Fire. With Isobu as his protector and playmate, Minato thought, maybe naming him after the strait as a symbol of unity between Uzushio and Konoha would be a nice touch of support for Konoha's upcoming declaration of independence. 

He'll ask Kushina what she thought. 

And he trailed up the beach, bare feet leaving dry footprints in the sand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the end of chapter 2, Minato is about 19. Kakashi is probably around 10.
> 
> At the end of the epilogue, he's about 24. Kakashi is at this point about 15. Itachi is roughly 5 years old at this point. Hahahah. Don't ask me to do more maths, okay? Okay. 
> 
> Kushina's grandfather was Hayase from Symbol, his son and heir was Afuru (溢る) which means "to flood" or "to brim over". 
> 
> Taji gave Isobu directly to Kushina when she came of age because Isobu liked her. 
> 
> Kushina was the first female Prince of Uzushio after the whole idea of gender roles settled in. Minato was the first male Princess Consort, but his gender wasn't as disconcerting as the fact that he is and was nothing like Tobirama, the famous Wife to end all Wives, nor like Orochimaru, dangerous and powerful and an endlessly accomplished Wife and helpmeet to his husband the Yondaime Hokage. 
> 
> Instead, Minato is the barefoot beach princess who has apparently invented glass-bottomed boats. 
> 
> And leaves completely dry footprints in the sand. >:) 
> 
> And yes, Naruto the character in canon is named for the fish cake (Narutomaki) that is actually named for the [Naruto Strait](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naruto_Strait) in Japan.
> 
> [Transects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transect) are a sampling technique, particularly in ecological studies. 
> 
> I r biologist. In a story about basic research versus applied research, could I _really_ forget my roots as a researcher in basic science? :D
> 
> [Laboratory life: the Construction of Scientific Facts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_Life) is an influential sociological work on the sociology of _science_ by Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, which "advances a number of observations regarding how scientific work is conducted, including descriptions of the complex relationship between the routine lab practices performed by scientists, the publication of papers, scientific prestige, research finances and other elements of laboratory life."
> 
> This was started on 10 Feb 2020. That is how long i was sitting on it _omg_ , but then the Epilogue was only written on 21 May, so guess if it sits in my computer long enough, it multiplies.


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